


Peter's Little Sister

by Hierophantastic



Series: Peter's Little sister [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 19:49:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18698023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hierophantastic/pseuds/Hierophantastic
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERS...He was happy. He was alive. Aunt May was alive, and so were Bucky, and Falcon, and the doctor, and the guardians. He should be laughing or smiling, even if it was a sad smile. He was happy, he told himself.But he was sad, really. He was sad, and bawling his eyes out, because itmotherfucking hurt.





	Peter's Little Sister

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Marvel fic. I didn't cry during the movie, but then I discovered all these peter and morgan fics and I've been crying my eyes out.

He was happy. He was alive. Aunt May was alive, and so were Bucky, and Sam, and the Doctor, and the Guardians. They saved the world. He should be proud and smiling, even if it was a sad smile. He was happy, he told himself.

But he was sad, really. He was sad, and bawling his eyes out, because it _motherfucking hurt_.

It should have been him. He had the gauntlet in his hands. He could've done it. He had healing powers. Tony didn't. Peter would have lived. And even if he hadn't, it would have been better than this. He had not wanted to die, back on Titan. It terrified him and it hurt, but it was better than this aching pit that was too familar for Peter. He felt it when his parents died. Then when Ben died. And now.

Part of him wanted to go now.

He watched the wreath and the arc-reactor drift away. The words that were written on it were not readable anymore, but he knew them by heart. It had been a funny joke when he first saw it and he had laughed together with Pepper about it. Now he hated it. As if they needed a _fucking piece of metal_ to tell them Tony Stark had a heart. As if his actions didn't speak loud enough. The proof of that was visible in every person alive at this moment, all of them testament to the selflessness of Tony Stark. Them, and the fact that he himself wasn't among them.

"Are you okay?"

Peter turned around. There was a four-year-old girl behind him. Tony's daughter. _Shit,_ Peter thought, not for the first time, _I've been dead for five years._ Was it wrong to hope that his friends had been as well, so that he wouldn't have missed five years of their lives, at least? Probably. But he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.

The girl's eyes seemed more afraid than sad. Peter remembered that feeling from when his parents had died. He had been young as well and hadn't completely understood the concept of death, but the grief and pain in the atmosphere had been palpable. It was dreadful. Her eyes, however, seemed to light up when they saw his face.

"Peter!" she squealed and she threw herself into his arms. Peter closed his arms around her without thinking and blinked away his tears in confusion.

"Morgan, right? You know me?" he asks, voice a little hoarse. She nods with shining eyes, only they aren't shining with tears like Peter's, but joy.

"Of course! Daddy talked about you a lot! And Spider-Man!" She leans in closer and her voice drops, as if she is about to tell a secret. "You had the best bed-time stories, but don't tell uncle Rhodey that. He'll get jealous." Then she took his hand and claimed she had to show him something. Peter catches May and Mrs. Potts - Stark, now - staring at them with fondness.

Morgan leads him into the house to a wall filled with pictures. There were pictures of Mr. Stark's wedding, of visits to the zoo. Of Tony and Morgan tinkering with something. Of Pepper and Tony and Morgan on a picnic. On a few of pictures the Avengers were there as well. Rhodes, mostly, but Steve Rogers and Natasha and the others a few times. Peter doesn't really understand why Morgan is showing him this.

"It's the family wall," she says, and Peter's breath hitches in his throat as he sees the right lower corner, which is filled - _filled_ \- with pictures of him. Peter and Tony at his internship. Spider-Man and Iron Man, flying in the sky. Peter, making a selfie while Tony looks away and is halfway to pushing away the camera. That was from when they had just met.

The family wall, she had said.

"I'm on there too."

"Yeah," Morgan suddenly sounds a lot more nervous. "Daddy talked a lot about you. He loves you very much. I would say somewhere around 2800-2900. He said- He said you were one of his kids, and before he left, he said that when he brought you back you would be the best big brother." 

Peter gapes at her. There were tears in his eyes again. Hers now, as well. She continues on hurriedly. "But you don't have to be if it's making you cry, it's just- he said- you-"

"Morgan," Peter chokes out. "I'd love to be your brother."

Morgan smiles, but the tears continue as she stares at the pictures. Her voice is tiny. "He's not coming back, is he?"

Peter kneels and puts an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. "I lost my parents when I was young too, you know. Then I lost my uncle. Now I've lost mr. Stark. But you know what?"

Morgan sniffles and buries her head in his shoulder.

"He's still here," he taps her chest with his free arm, "and here," he taps her temple. "As long as you remember him, he'll always be with you. And no matter what, your father will always love you."

"But what if I forget?" she asks quiet, so quiet Peter would have missed it if he wasn't so close. He's not sure if the question was meant for him, but she needs an answer. Because he knows that fear. He knows what it's like to wake up one day and realize he had forgotten his father's voice, or what his mother's favourite lullaby was.

"Then I'll be there to help you remember. Me, and your mother, and Happy, and everyone and everything he left behind. We won't let you forget."

\--

"Peter."

It is getting late, but Peter and May are still at the lakehouse. Morgan had not wanted to let go of him until she had fallen asleep. Now,Peter and mrs. Stark are in the upstairs hallway outide Morgan's bedroom. Mrs. Stark is saying his name as she holds a red metallic box in her hands. It's a holoprojector, like the one that held mr. Stark's last message. It also has Peter's name taped on it. She extends her hand, offering the box.

"This is for you. He left some personal messages for everyone."

Peter almost starts crying again. Mr. Stark left a message for him, personally. Those would be the last words he would ever say to Peter. He takes it. "Th- thank you, mrs. Stark."

"Pepper, Peter. Call me Pepper."

Peter looks her in the eyes for the first time that evening. He had looked away everytime before, afraid of what he might see. He's not really surprised there is no anger ther, no blame. Only compassion, sympathy, and grief. That only makes it worse. The words come falling out of his mouth before he realizes it. 

"I'm sorry, mrs.- Pepper. I should have- If I'd been faster, I could've-"

Pepper reaches for him, pulls him into a hg and rubs circles on his back as she shushes. "It's not your fault, Peter. Don't blame yourself. It's not your fault."

"No, it is! I had the gauntlet! I could've used it myself if I'd thought of it-"

"Peter, no."

"-mr. Stark was only human, but I heal faster. I would've lived! It's mmy fault-"

"No, Peter!" Peter stops stammering when he hears the stern tone in Pepper's voice. She draws back to look him in the eye. "You saw what it did to Bruce. He barely survived. It would have killed you." Peter opens his mouth to speak, but Pepper cuts him of. "And don't you _dare_ say that would have been better. When To- Tony got back to earth from Titan without you he was crushed. To get you back only for you to kill yourself again so fast would have broken him beyond repair, Peter. And not just him. Morgan just met you and she already loves you. And what about May, and all your friends?"

Peter slumps his shoulders in defeat. He feels relieved, though. Pepper wipes his tears away. 

"Tony loved you like a son, Peter. I've always known he wouldn't die peacefully in bed of old age, although I had my hopes. He was destined to go out protecting someone, or saving something, whether it was a single person or the entire world - it didn't matter to him. Now, it's late, and you and May both need your sleep."

Peter didn't argue. He just followed Pepper down and May into the car and dragged himself to bed and cried again the next morning.

\--

"Hey kid."

He looks the same as always. Older than on Titan - five years older, to be precise - but still so _Stark_. The hair, the goatee, the way he's fidgeting with - what was it, a ball of nanotech? It looked interesting, the way it continually changed shape.

His voice was the same as well.

"So, if you're watching this, I'm probably dead. Or your friend might have hacked into my files again, who knows, with the two of you. If I'm dead, I hope you're watching this at least, because that means it wasn't for nothing. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you a few things. You and Morgan now have ownership of the lab - have you met Morgan? You'll like her. She already likes you. God, I wish I could see the two of you. Damn, I'm getting of track. Right, shared ownership of my lab, be good with it. There are some private files, meant for you and Morgan only, password is 'kids'. You take a look at it, use what you want from those meant for you and show Morgan hers when you think she's ready.

"Now we've dealt with that, I just- I just wanted-" Tony grips his forehead and mutters under his breath. "Like I said, if you're watching this I'm probably dead and I just wanted to say, if I haven't gotten the chance to, that I've missed you. I've missed you a lot. And if I haven't hugged you yet, than that is something I will regret forever. Because - goddamnit. I'm such a sap - because I did it for you, Peter. I was willing to let this whole time-travel thing slide, even though it would have failed without me, if it hadn't meant that there was a chance to get you back. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I passed it up."

No. This was too much. It was his fault. It was his fault Tony did it. It was his fault-

"Now, I know you, kid. And you're probably blaming yourself because I died due to this time-travel thing. Don't. It was my decision. I just- I just wanted my kid back. And now I need you to be there for my other kid. Morgan doesn't have a father anymore because of my selfishness. So can you look after Maguna for me? Please?"

It was hard to see with the holgram's light, but it looked like Tony was crying as well.

"Just, look after your little sister for me, okay, son? Love you."

The holgram ended and the light went away. It was dark in Peter's room. Tears dripped in the shadow as he sobbed.

"Sure thing, dad," he whispered to a ghost.

\--

The first time Pepper sees them together in the lab she almost calls Tony's name.

Physically, Peter does not look that much like her husband. But the way he is hunched over his project, the way Morgan hovers around him and pesters him with questions, it warms her heart. She wishes Tony was here. And in a way, she thinks, he is here, in his children. Because Peter is his son in all but blood.

She leaves two plates of food. She drags a complaining Morgan out later. Peter falls asleep in the lab. Rhodey comes in one time and sees him like that, and Pepper can tell he is feeling the same thing - that odd mix of seeing something missing and something whole.

Morgan, on her part, loves her new brother. She clings to him like she once clung to Tony and Peter loves her just as much as he did. It's an odd family they have, with aliens and superheroes and mutants and ordinary people, but Pepper doubts a single one of them would change it.

\--

"So, can we build a laser gun next time?"

"We already have laser guns."

"Oh yeah. What about an astromech?"

"That might work, we could upload Karen or FRIDAY into one."

"Yeah! Or a protocol droid! Or a _lightsaber!_ "

Happy watches the exchange warily, as he, Peter, and Morgan sit at Burger King. The three of them were eating a cheeseburger. He swallows his last bite and decides to put his worries out in the open.

"So, do I want to know what you two are talking about?"

Morgan turns to him, with an all too familiar eager expression. "Yesterday, me and Peter watched this _really old movie_ called A New Hope! Have you ever seen it?"

Happy ignores Morgan's question in favor of turning to Peter, who had a totally unapologetic shiteating grin on his face. He sighs, face blank.

"I knew it. You're ruining Stark's little girl, kid."

\--

Morgan showed up at Peter's apartment one evening with tear-stained cheeks. "Morgan?" he asked, surpised. Morgan looks up at him and wipes her face.

"I'm sorry, I know it's late, but it's really important!" Morgan's voice is filled with urgency and Peter lets her in without hesitation. He silently mouths May to call Pepper. 

"What's wrong, Morgan?"

Morgan's mouth open and closes before she whispers it. "I'm forgetting," she says with fear in her voice. "Does that mean that- that Dad will really leave?"

Peter takes her hand and sets her down on a chair. "Morgan, your Dad will always be with you. But I promised you something, didn't I?" She nods.

"That's why I'm here. Mom's at work and Happy was sleeping. So I came here."

"Wait. You walked here? How did you even know the way?"

"FRIDAY told me." She held up her digital watch. Peter glared at the traitorous AI that housed within for a moment. She was supposed to look after Morgan, not send her walking the streets at night.

"So what did you want to know?"

Peter spent the night regaling Morgan with stories of her father. She ended up having a sleep-over at their apartment after May had assured Pepper everything was fine. Peter dragged a matress in the living room and he himself went to sleep on the couch. Morgan yawned and whispered to Peter before they went to sleep, "Do you know what I do remember about Dad?"

"Hm? What?"

"How much he loves me. Guess."

"Hmmm. I'd say, somewhere between 2900 and 2800?" He remembered the recording, of course, but let her have her fun.

Morgan giggled and shook her head. "No. He loves me _3000_."

Peter smiled. "Now, I think that's wrong. Want to know why?" Morgan shook her head, a little afraid, because why wouldn't Dad love her 3000? Did he love her suddenly less? Peter continued. "I think he loves you a lot more than 3000. Just like I do."

Morgan is silent. Her mouth is hanging open. It is utterly adorable. 

"That's a lot," she whispers eventually.

"Sure is, Morg. Now go to sleep or I'll throw away all your ice-cream."

Morgan wonders if her brother knows how much he sounds like Dad.

\--

Peter and Morgan spent a lot of time in the lab. She was always buidling, always fixing something. Mom said she was just like Dad. He could fix everyting, even the world. Everything except himself, Morgan thought, with an odd mix of love, longing, and bitterness.

He managed to fix her brother, though. Her brother, of whom she had heard stories her entier childhood but hadn't seen for five years. She was eight now. Peter missed Dad too. She wondered if he was ever angry at him. She was ashamed to ask. Until one day.

She and Peter had been out getting ice cream, when a man suddenly stopped them. He talked to Morgan about her Dad, praised him, said she must be proud of her selfless heroic father. She told him he didn't even know what her Dad was like and ran off.

Peter found her at Delmar's. His love for sandwiches had rubbed off on her and she didn't feel like cheeseburgers now.

"Hey," he said, "what's wrong, Morg?"

Morgan didn't talk until she had finished her sandwich, and then she spent some time staring at the crumbs. Finally, she opened her mouth. "Are you ever angry at him?"

Peter didn't need to ask who. He just looked at her.

"I am, sometimes. Everyone always says he is a hero for what he did, but I just want my father. I just wish- I just he hadn't done it. That he would still be alive." She rubs her palms in her eyes, determined not to cry as she waits for Peter to say she's a bad person, a terrible daughter, and she should be proud of Dad. Peter doesn't, though. He simply stares at the ceiling as he blinks away his own tears.

"No, I'm not," he says quietly. Morgan almost starts crying again. She's a bad person. But Peter's not done yet. "I'm angry at myself for not stopping him in time. I'm angry at myself for dying in the first place."

"But you couldn't do anything about that," she points out.

"I know. But I feel angry all the same. I know what you're talking about, though. You remember my uncle Ben?"

Morgan does. She visited his grave with Peter and he sometimes tells stories about him.

"There was a robbery. Ben got involved, he just wanted to help, and then they shot him. Sometimes I wish he had been a little more selfish, or cowardly." Peter looks at Morgan now with shiny eyes. "But if he had been, he wouldn't have been my uncle Ben, you know?"

Morgan is silent for a moment, thinking. "But why did they do it?" she ask. Peter reaches over the table and ruffles her hair.

"You'll understand someday."

"Does being angry at them make us bad people?"

"No, Morg. It just makes us human."

\--

She's nine when she understands.

She's in the bank with Peter. There is long queue in front. The door opens, she looks over her shoulder, and tugs Peter's sleeve who turns around as well. Three men walked in and one of them grabs a nearby woman and holds a gun to her head.

"EVERYONE ON THE GROUND!" he bellows. People scream, and Morgan runs. She runs toward the hostage, not hearing her brother's panicked scream. The robber notices her as well and he moves his hand and suddenly Morgan has a gun pointed at her.

There's a gun pointed at her.

She keeps running. A hand grabs her collar and pulls her back. The bullet passes over her head. Peter darts forwards and kicks the gun out of the man's hands. Security has taken advantage of the situation and subdued the other robbers. Peter turns to her with a furious expression and pulls her out of the bank to the park where he sets her down.

"What _the fuck_ were you thinking, Morgan!? That man was going to kill you! You'd've been dead!"

Morgan shuffled uncomfortably on the wooden bench as she stares at the ground. "That's a bad word. It makes Mom angry," she mumbles. Peter snorts.

"Well, at least, you _know_ that! You know what else makes mom angry!? People who ki- harm her daughter! Why did you run at him like that! He was armed!" 

"He- He was gonna hurt that lady." 

"I would have saved her. I almost couldn't save you." _And I promised him, Morg_. He doesn't say it but she knows he's thinking it. She looks up and is surprised to see that despite his angry voice, her brother's eyes are shining with tears. He hugs her. "It's okay now. Just don't do it again."

Morgan is about to say okay, when something stops her. She knows she shouldn't, but she's not sure she won't do it again.

"I'm not sure I can make that promise."

"What!?" Peter pulls back, surprised and confused.

"I think I understand now, why Dad did it. And uncle Ben."

Peter looks at her for a moment, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. His lips quirk up in a sad smile. "You look so much like him, you know." Then he stands up and takes her hand. "Come, let's go to the lab. There's something I have to show you."

Morgan plagues Peter with questions the whole way back. Mom isn't home yet, and Morgan is glad for that because she would've been way angrier than Peter. Maybe because Peter is a superhero himself.

In the lab, Peter turns on the computer and starts digging through the files. "You remember those private files I told you about?"

"The ones with your upgrades and my toys?"

"Yeah. But they had more for you than just toys."

"Wha-"

But Morgan's words are taken away by the hologram that pops up, numbers listing weight, speed and more beside it. At first look, it's one of Dad's suits, but it's only a skeleton. It has no colours, the design is as basic as can be, and the calculations are all done. It has everything it needs but nothing Dad usually gave them to make them unique, to make them _his_. Then she notices the name.

Maguna MK. I.

"Is that-"

"For you?" Peter chuckles. "You'll still need to grow a little older before I'll let you use it, but you can complete it in the meantime."

"Because I rushed an armed robber?"

Peter's face turned serious. "Listen Morgan, what you did today was stupid, reckless, and it gave me a heart attack. Basically, it's exactly what I would've done when I was a kid. That doesn't mean you should do it again because your mom _will_ kill me, so please don't for my sake. But if your father could see who you are becoming - and I'm sure he can - he would be proud of you. I'm proud of you. Hell, you're gonna make the entire world proud of you, except for the villains, because they will despise the way you thwart their every plan with that genius mind of yours." His hand is tight on her shoulder.

"Just promise me you'll wait a few years with the hero business and then you'll have a fancy suit and everything."

Morgan Stark can barely contain her grin. "Promise."

\--

Pepper isn't surprised when she finds them working on the suit. Rhodey isn't surprised when he catches her wearing a prototype. Happy isn't surprised when he has to drag her from the lab in the middle of the night. Steve isn't surprised when he sees on the news that a new Iron Man has come despite her only being sixteen. And, although he scolds her for it and tells her to respect the suit, Peter isn't surprised when he finds out she has been using her suit to arrive at the movies on time.

Because Morgan is Peter's little sister as much as she is Stark's daughter.


End file.
